The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is seeking $215 million from three former executives of Fannie Mae for the alleged role they played in the company's accounting scandal, the agency said Monday.
OFHEO issued 101 civil charges against the executives - Franklin D. Raines, the company's former chairman and chief executive, Timothy Howard, former chief financial officer, and Leanne G. Spencer, former controller. The agency is seeking a $100 million civil money penalty from the three and wants to recapture $115 million in compensation already paid out.
The three are accused of inappropriately managing and manipulating earnings, deliberately misleading financial disclosures and failing to establish a sound internal control process.
"These three individuals did very serious harm to this company," OFHEO Director Jim Lockhart told reporters during a conference call.
The Office of Personnel Management will assign an administrative law judge to take over the case. OFHEO officials would not say when a trial can begin.
Mr. Raines and Mr. Howard were ousted from Fannie in December 2004 after the Securities and Exchange Commission said the GSE had to restate its earnings from 2001 to 2004. This month, Fannie restated its earnings to reduce profits by $6 billion.
An attorney for Mr. Raines called Mr. Lockhart a "fatally biased regulator" and asked him to remove himself from any further actions that would affect the chief executive. Meanwhile, Steven Salky, Mr. Howard's attorney, called the charges "a work of unsubstantiated fiction."
